UBC and Eleven-X Partner on Smart Parking Project
The point of technology is to make everyone’s lives a little easier—whether it be communicating with someone or finding a parking spot.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) and eleven-X Inc. have partnered on a new Smart Campus project to collect data on how often parking spaces made for people with disabilities are truly used. The data will allow UBC workers to provide more accessible parking spots for those who need it most.
The project is designed to collect information through the implementation of parking sensors in the pavement. These sensors are connected to the eleven-X LoRa wide area network, which will provide real-time data to UBC admin.
“Our goal is to ensure UBC provides optimal parking accessibility for disabled individuals. Capturing real-time data will provide a detailed view of usage frequency enabling our operations to ensure that accessible parking is efficient and always available,” said Brian Jones, UBC’s director of parking and access services.
This project will last about six months. That time frame will allow for enough accurate information to be gathered based on seasonal and event factors. After the six months, UBC will assess the information and see if more spaces are required.
The goal is to take something like parking spaces that are often forgotten about and easily dismissed as “working fine” and see if smart data analysis can provide new insights into how the old-school infrastructure is actually faring. Eleven-X does this with IoT-enabled technology that offers a glimpse into how everyday objects are used.
“UBC has examined a number of technologies for their Smart Campus requirements and we’re extremely pleased that UBC has chosen the eleven-x LoRa wireless network as the platform to launch this accessible parking initiative,” said Dan Mathers, president and CEO of eleven-X. “Our goal is to aid UBC in delivering on the promise of providing improved and more efficient access to parking stalls for individuals with disabilities.”
UBC is a perfect choice for this kind of project as they are the third-largest university by student size in the country, but operate the largest university parking operation with over 8,300 spaces in total.
